


Dead Memories

by the1crazycatlady



Series: Snuff [1]
Category: Rustlers of Red Rock (Melodrama)
Genre: Based on a song, F/F, Femslash, Flashbacks, Friendship/Love, Hesitation, Melodrama, Post-Canon, Sad Ending, Slipknot - Freeform, Spoilers, Weddings, cross-dressing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 11:35:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3808906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the1crazycatlady/pseuds/the1crazycatlady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day before her marriage to Steve, Blossom starts to wonder if she really should marry the handsome cowboy.</p><p>(Disclaimer: I own nothing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sitting in the dark, I can't forget  
Even now, I realize the time I'll never get  
Another story of the Bitter Pills of Fate  
I can't go back again. I can't go back again  
But you asked me to love you and I did  
Traded my emotions for a contract to commit

And when I got away, I only got so far. The Other Me Is Dead  
I hear his voice inside my head  
We were never alive, and we won't be born again  
But I'll never survive with Dead Memories in my heart  
You told me to love you and I did. Tied my soul into a knot and got me to submit

So when I got away, I only kept my scars. The Other Me Is Gone  
Now I don't know where I belong  
We were never alive, and we won't be born again  
But I'll never survive with Dead Memories in my heart  
Dead Visions in your Name  
Dead Fingers in my Veins  
Dead Memories in my Heart

\- _Dead Memories_ , Slipknot


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author Note: This is a post-canon fanfic for a melodrama by D. Chappell. The setting is western Oregon, roughly around the 1870's or so.
> 
> (There is a backstory to this, and I apologize for any confusion.)

"Imagine!" Lily White cried. "My little Blossom, gettin' hitched tomorrow!" Lily gasped and put a hand over her breast. Blossom looked over her shoulder at the woman.

"Yes, Mother." She turned back to the mirror, cocking her head what she saw.

"Aren't you excited, Blossom, dear?" Grandma Nitabit asked, wrapping Blossom in a warm hug.

"Why, of course I am, Grandma!" Blossom laughed, shrugging the elderly woman away. She then span around, so elated, high as the sky, and her full skirts billowed out. "I love Steve more than anything!"

Lily began to weep and Blossom paused. "Oh, Mother, don't be upset." She pulled Lily in for an embrace. "This is a happy day!" She paused again, considering. "Well, tomorrow will be, anyway."

"I know," Lily hiccuped, "it's just that you're no longer my little baby girl!" She began to cry louder.

"Oh, there, there, Lily dear." Grandma Nitabit took Lily away from Blossom and began to rub circles on Lily's shaking back. Then she looked over at Blossom. "I think I'd best take her to her room, right, Blossom?"

"I guess so, Grandma."

They left and Blossom stared harder at herself in the mirror. The pristine, pearl-white wedding dress hugged her curves in just the right ways, while still hiding what was necessary and offering modesty. She fingered the wedding ring on her finger - it had been Steve's mother's. Sighing, she reached behind and undid the back of the dress. Quietly, she draped it on her bed and sat down at her desk.

She loved Steve - she did, she really did. He was going to give her everything she had ever wanted: a good family, security, everything... It would be perfect.

And yet, she found that she was scared. It was only natural, Blossom knew, but...why? She loved Steve, and he loved her, and...and...

Why did she feel so nervous? Why was she hesitating, even thinking about calling off the wedding? It made no sense. She loved Steve more than anything-

_Really?_  
_  
__That was nothing._  Absolutely nothing. It had been some sort of...fluky thing. Never happened. She had decided on that right after it had all happened.

Against her will, Blossom found herself recalling the first time Scarlett Vixen had stepped into the picture. She's been working for that demon, Black Bart - Blossom shuddered at the memories - and has come to deceive Blossom by claiming that Steve was her fiancé. Blossom cringed and tried to shake it all away.

_"I am Scarlett Vixen, a singer at the Black Bart Saloon in Red Rock."_

_"I can see that,"  Blossom replied, disgusted. She then had looked up and down at Scarlett and scoffed._ "By your attire."

She had been so rude. It was amazing that she and Scarlett had eventually become friends. The ranch manager and the saloon girl. Shocking. Absolutely shocking.

The unspeakable incident that started the whole disastrous affair had been after lunch one day. Blossom and Scarlett went for a walk to town to pick up a package. To avoid possible highwaymen, they had taken the back - and significantly longer - route. By the time the two women were coming back, the temperature was absolutely scorching.

"Sure is hot today, don't you agree, Blossom?" Scarlett had sighed dramatically, fanning herself. Blossom adjusted her parasol and looked over at Scarlett.

"Yes," she had said. "Very hot." Her hand fan had been in her purse, so she fanned herself with the mail.

"It makes me wish I was back to my old saloon days," Scarlett had admitted. "At least then the skirts were more...breezy."

Blossom chose to be polite and remain quiet. Never in her life would she herseslf stoop so low as to become a  _hussy_ , a  _saloon girl_  - the idea!

Of course, Scarlett hadn't had things as good as Blossom. But she was respectable now, because she had put that atrocious lifestyle behind her, helped bring that diabolical Black Bart to justice, etcetera. And, also as was the manner of the time, it was best to remain quiet and deny that such a negative background had ever occurred.

"Blossom, can I ask you a question?"

Blossom lowered the letters. "Of course, Scarlett!" She smiled in that radiant way of hers. "Whatever you want."

"Well." Scarlett had stopped walking, a devious little grin rising on her face. She gestured for Blossom to step close, which the latter did, pulling the parasol out of the way.

"Well?" Blossom repeated, laughing. "What is this big thing you want to ask me?"

"This is going to sound strange to you, I'm sure," Scarlett had began, flipping some of her long brown hair over one shoulder. Blossom watched it fly. "But have you ever tried on a pair of pants?"

Blossom had recoiled, aghast at the very idea. "Of course not! How can... The idea...  _No._ " She had looked at Scarlett liked the latter was mad, then straightened up, going back to fanning herself with the mail.

"Well, I have, and they are the most comfortable, loose things in the world."

"Scarlett!" Blossom looked around. "Quiet, someone might here you!"

_She's been socializing too much with Quiet Harry_ , Blossom thought. She shook her head.

"Oh, don't be so uppity!" Scarlette teased. "Honestly, didn't you ever wonder what it's like?"

"No."

"You're lying."

"I am not!"

"Yes you are." Scarlett bumped hips with her. "Whenever you get antsy, you go completely red in the face and refuse to make eye contact with anyone. Come on, Blossom: I know you."

Blossom had smoothed down her dress. "Okay, maybe when I was a child. But I never did it - Mother said it was disrespectful, strumpetty behavior."

"That's only if you tell someone." Scarlett grinned and Blossom sighed. "Come on, Blossom, please? I want to do this with you before we both become married women and loose all our fun."

"Well..."

They then had hurried back to the ranch and stole themselves into Steve's room.

"This is extremely improper, Scarlett," Blossom reminded her, lifting up her long blonde hair so Scarlett would have easier access to the buttons and hooks.

"You promised," Scarlett reminded back. "Do me, will you?"

Blossom undid Scarlett's hooks, then bows, and then slipped out of her own dress. "Steve's bureau is over here..." She went over to the bureau and pulled out one pair of pants, then another. She looked at them, then Scarlett. "I don't think you'll fit in these - you have more hips than he does."

For the time being, she had decided to just go with what was happening and act like it wasn't. It's not as if Steve would find out about this, or Grandma Nitabit, or Lily, or really anyone in general. It would be their little secret.

"Oh, that's all right," Scarlett had assured Blossom; "I just wanted to get out of these layers for a bit. Phew!" She tossed her dress onto the bed with Blossom's. "Well, go on, take off the petticoats and try them on!"

Blossom swished her underskirts from side-to-side. By now, she was extremely curious, and it's not like anyone would know, and, after all, a promise is a promise...

She slid down her petticoats and reluctantly pulled on the pants. She must have had bigger hips than Steve, because, unlike him, she didn't need a belt. Her face was red.

"Well?" Scarlett asked expectantly, drifting behind Blossom. She was so close, her petticoats pressed themselves into Blossom's leg. "What do you think?"

Blossom stepped away and veered off to the side. "How do they walk like this?" she had wondered, grabbing onto the desk chair. "It's so...unbalanced." She had felt as though an entire piece of her was missing - but in a good way, surprisingly. Blossom drifted over to the mirror and looked at herself. She gasped.

"You look pretty good, Blossom," Scarlett remarked, sliding up behind the young woman and putting her hands on her shoulders; "it's a nice look for you."

"If you say so..." Blossom looked in the mirror and ran her hands along her slender hips. "They're too loose."

"Oh, Blossom, dear." Scarlett then slid over to Blossom's side and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "You're just not used to it."

Blossom swallowed and had glanced at Scarlett out of the corner of her eye. Scarlett smiled at her and Blossom had felt her stomach flip.

The kiss had been slow and hesitant at first. Blossom's heart thundered in her ears even more than the way it had when Steve Dashing had kissed her after- Wow, this was so much more. Blossom struggled to place what it was and just let herself get sucked into the point of no return. She had wanted so desperately to escape it, but Scarlett...Scarlett was just  _too much_.

They had continued like that for ages. While Blossom and Steve grew ever-closer, she and Scarlett seemed to get even  _closer than that_. It was all going so fast, Blossom scarcely had time to catch her breath; she wanted it to stop, but then she also wanted it to go faster. Faster.  _Faster!_  
_  
_ "Blossom White, will yeh marry me?"

Blossom had been completely caught off-guard by Steve's proposal. He was on his knees and had a beautiful diamond ring. His mother's ring. Blossom stuttered, too shocked to do much else.

"Yes!" she cried, tears springing in her eyes - she had assured herself that they were tears of joy. "Oh, Steve, of course I will!"

Steve stood up and she had flung herself into his strong, waiting arms and they had kissed, long and deep and hard. Then, when Steve had left to get back to work, Blossom had sat down in the closest chair - she was in the parlor - and began to cry.

"Blossom, what's wrong?" It was Scarlett; Blossom pulled her arms over her head.

"Steve proposed to me!" she sobbed. "I said yes!"

Scarlett stumbled back. _"What?"_

"What else could I do?" Blossom gasped, a lump rising in her throat. _Don't even try looking at her._ "Refuse? Scarlett, I love him!"

Scarlett turned away, clutching at her dress. "Oh," she said after a pause, hardly sounding pleased. "That...that's very nice. I wish you both-" She had sounded choked. "Both the best of happiness."

"Scarlett," Blossom began, raising her head.

"No, no, perfectly fine," Scarlett then had interrupted. "After all, what little can I expect from someone so prim and proper as _little m_ _iss Blossom White?"_

Coming from her, it seemed like the worst insult.

 ***

 Blossom sighed and shook away the memories.  _It's done_ , she reminded herself.  _Over._  She stood up and began to get dressed.

Scarlett was at the wedding the next day. She sat in the back, next to Harry - they held hands. Scarlett didn't look happy and feisty like she usually did. In fact, she looked rather sad.

The time came for Blossom to commit herself. She hesitated, glancing back over at Scarlett, who was perched on the edge of her seat in the pew.

"Blossom?" Steve asked quietly.

"I do!" Blossom blurted, turning back to him. Steve would be enough. Just enough. He would make her happy.

He would make her bury the dead memories.

The newlyweds kissed. Cheering ensued from the crowd. After the ceremony, Blossom broke away from her new husband and walked around, trying to find Scarlett.

But she was gone.


End file.
